A Pictorial Guide To The Lakeland Fells: The Northern Fells

Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells #5

by Alfred Wainwright

The Northern Fells include the rolling Caldbeck and Uldale Fells – 'serene and restful, a perfect sanctuary for birds and animals and fell-walkers who prefer to be away from the crowds'; Skiddaw – 'an affable, friendly giant'; majestic Blencathra – 'the mountaineer's mountain'; Latrigg – the favourite of visitors to Keswick – and many more. They offer the walker excellent tramping and exhilarating freedom to wander at will.. The Pictorial Guides by A. Wainwright, written half a century ago, have been treasured by generations of walkers. This edition of The Northern Fells is freshly reproduced from Wainwright's original hand-drawn pages.

Genres: Walking, Nonfiction, Travel, Reference, Outdoors

150 pages, Paperback

First published July 27, 2005

About the author

Alfred Wainwright was born in Blackburn, Lancashire to Thomas Wainwright and Elizabeth Nixon.[citation needed] His family was relatively poor, mostly due to his stonemason father's alcoholism. He did very well at school (first in nearly every subject)[1] although he left at the age of 13. While most of his classmates were obliged to find employment in the local mills, Wainwright started work as an office boy in Blackburn Borough Engineer's Department. He spent several further years studying at night school, gaining qualifications in accountancy which enabled him to further his career at Blackburn Borough Council. Even when a child Wainwright walked a great deal, up to 20 miles at a time; he also showed a great interest in drawing and cartography, producing his own maps of England and his local area.
In 1930, at the age of 23, Wainwright saved up enough money for a week's walking holiday in the Lake District with his cousin Eric Beardsall. They arrived in Windermere and climbed the nearby hill Orrest Head, where Wainwright saw his first view of the Lakeland fells. This moment marked the start of what he would later describe as his love affair with the Lake District. In 1931 he married his first wife, Ruth Holden, a local mill worker, with whom he had a son Peter. In 1941 Wainwright was able to move closer to the fells when he took a job (and with it a pay cut) at the Borough Treasurer's office in Kendal, Westmorland. He lived and worked in the town for the rest of his life, serving as Borough Treasurer from 1948 until he retired in 1967. His first marriage ended when Ruth walked out three weeks before he retired. They later divorced. In 1970 he married Betty McNally (1922–2008), also a divorcee, who became his walking companion and who eventually carried his ashes to Innominate Tarn at the top of Haystacks.

Reviews

[Emma H · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slaps

[Goldie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This man's works are the most extraordinary thing I have ever seen. Well, perhaps not the MOST extraordinary, but they are way up there. Try and find them in a library, just to sit in a reading room and gloat over his incredibly detailed drawings. It would be astounding if he had made one book, but he's made dozens. In awe. Whimper!

[Fem]

"By standing on tiptoes, craning the neck, leaping in the air and miscellaneous gyrations of the body not normally indulged in by people in their right senses... it is just possible, on a clear day, to see all the fells indicated on the diagram. The obstruction is caused by..."

If you love walking, and your sense of humor is tickled by these kinds of descriptions of the lakeland fells (I will not disclose which summit this describes, you will have to discover that yourself), this might well be for you.

Full of lovely drawings and hand-drawn maps, reading this while being here gave me an extra dimension of joy to experiencing these fells.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slaps

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one loses a star for its pointless inclusion of Mungrisdale Common